US Embassy mocks Russian paper over fake ‘outing’ letter

MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has mocked a Russian daily that has accused Washington of conspiring to brand some Russian officials as gays, by correcting mistakes in a fake letter the newspaper mentioned as proof.

The Kremlin-friendly Izvestia paper has referred to a letter purportedly written by a senior U.S. diplomat to a Russian gay rights activist, Nikolai Alexeyev. The paper said the letter posted by hackers reflected a U.S. attempt to use gay activists to describe top Russian officials as gays. The U.S. has accused Russia of infringing on gays’ rights.

The embassy responded on Twitter, correcting a couple of dozen grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and adding: “Dear Izvestia, next time you will publish fake letters, please send them to us. We will be glad to help correct mistakes.”